City Colleges of Chicago has announced applications are open for the Timuel D. Black Jr. Scholarship and Fellowship program, which honors the life and work of the late City Colleges professor, activist and historian. The program’s goal is to help 20 current City Colleges students develop into community leaders in the mold of Black, who died in 2021 at the age of 102.
“We want them to explore and examine themselves within the context of being a student at City Colleges, within the context of being a fellow,” said Rhonda Brown, City Colleges vice chancellor and president of the City Colleges of Chicago Foundation, which will help fund the program. “In addition to getting some really great content from grassroots leaders that the chancellor has especially identified that align with Timuel Black’s methodology, his theology and the way in which he managed his work in the community, they’re going to have an opportunity to take a bus trip down south to Selma, Alabama, where Dr. Black hails from. Having that experience, leaving Chicago, following the trail from Chicago down south, participating in conversations around grassroots activism and engaging community and institutions in creating transformation and change, is what the students should get from this [fellowship.]”
Read More: Chicago Historian, Activist Timuel Black Dead at 102
Brown said the late Black’s wife, Zenobia Johnson-Black, has been “instrumental” in setting up the program.
“We are working with her to develop a small committee of folks that will, after the first review of scholarships, have an opportunity to learn about the students and help us to determine who will actually be the final recipients of the scholarship,” Brown said.
The deadline to apply is April 15. Applicants must be currently enrolled in the City Colleges of Chicago with plans to remain enrolled through spring 2024.
The Timuel D. Black Jr. Scholarship and Fellowship luncheon will be held June 15 at Malcolm X College, hosted by the City Colleges of Chicago Foundation; the public can buy tickets online in May.
